Property Regimes in India: A Study of Political Determinants of Structural Factors

The stated objective of land policy in India has shifted from redistribution through land reform to ownership through land acquisition in the period between 1950 and 2014. Sub-national governments that dealt with land policy had the option to exercise a mix of redistribution and acquisition based on historical factors, social demands and political convictions. This paper makes two related arguments by tracing the path of land reforms in the states of India. The first is that there are four types of property regimes that emerged out of India at the sub-national level. The second is that the nature of property regime has been predominantly the result of the nature of structural features of political regime at the sub-national level.